Community Forestry Enterprises in Mexico: Sustainability and Competitiveness

Community-based forest management, such as Community Forest Enterprises (CFEs), has the potential to generate positive socioenvironmental and economic outcomes. We performed a detailed survey of financial and production parameters for 30 of the approximately 992 CFEs in Mexico in order to estimate costs, income, profits, and sustainability of harvest levels for forest management, harvest, and sawmilling. Fourteen of the 30 CFEs harvested more timber than they grew in 2011, suggesting issues with sustainability, but only two of these had harvest far above annual growth, and five of those were only a fraction more than annual growth. All of the 30 CFEs except one made profits in forest management and timber growing. For timber harvesting, 22 of 30 CFEs made profits, but the losses were small for the other CFEs. For the 23 CFEs with sawmills, 18 made profits and five had losses; the greatest returns for the CFEs accrued to those with sawmills for lumber production. On average, the CFEs surveyed had high costs of production relative to other countries, but the CFEs were still profitable in national lumber markets. If Mexico were to begin importing large amounts of lumber from lower cost countries, this could pose a threat to CFE profitability.     

Effect of land prices,transportation costs,and site productivity on timber investment returns for pine plantations in Colombia

The relative importance of land costs, site quality, and forest location are major concerns in forestry investments, but little research has been done to assess the impacts of these or other factors on financial returns. In response to this issue, the effects of land prices, wood transportation costs, site productivity, and discount rates on timber investment returns for pine plantations in the Andean Region in Colombia were estimated. For all the scenarios analyzed, the internal rate of return varied between 6.4 and 15.6%. High site quality with high growth rates were profitable in all scenarios at real discount rates ranging from 8 to 12%, but low site qualities seldom had positive net present values. Less expensive land and locations close to mills had better rates of return. More distant locations, poor quality sites, or areas with high land costs generally did not meet the discount hurdle rates. Site quality, which is the factor most easily manipulated by intensive forest management and improved technology, was substantially more important than land prices and transportation differences in determining timber investment returns.     

Using multiple objective linear programming to evaluate multi-participant agroforestry systems

Multiple objective linear programming is used to evaluate a simulated two-participant maize/cassava/leucaena/teak agroforestry system. Examples using two different price ratios are presented along with possible methods to optimize the system with regard to the interests of the two profit seeking participants. A third example examines possible solutions to a system involving a profit seeking forester and a non-monetary subsistence farmer.

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Progmación Usando progmacion lineal con objectivos multiples se estudia un sistema agroforestal simulado de maiz, yuca, leucaena y teca, considerando dos participantes. Se presentan ejemplos usando dos niveles de pricios con metodos posibles paraq optimizar el sistema con respcto a intereses monetarios de los dos participantes. En un tercer ejemplo se examinan las soluciones posibles para el sistema, involucrando un silvicultor interesado en beneficios monetarios y un agricultor de subsistencia con interes no monetarios.

     

The political situation facing the United States Forest Service

Congressional hearings pertaining to national forest management, timber sales, the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), and the Resources Planning Act (RPA) were censused and subjected to content analysis. Trends in interest group attitudes toward the Forest Service, as revealed by their formal position statements to Congress, were identified for the period 1984 to 1993. The resulting quantitative data were converted into percent pro and con values and plotted over time. Industry support has waned, and although positive responses from environmental groups have increased, they have not been enough to offset the industry decline. Opinions toward management issues have shown the greatest shift, while attitudes regarding timber sales and NFMA/RPA have remained relatively uniform throughout the time period. This analysis suggests that the United States Forest Service has lost an element of leverage in its dealings with Congress. As its programs have become broader, its support from interest groups has weakened. Research Assistant Professor and Department Head.     

A bordered matrix approach to the bioeconomic modeling of agroforestry systems

A bordered matrix approach was developed as a technique designed to model multi-canopied agricultural or forestry production systems to find the optimal planting pattern and density meeting specified economic criteria. The approach uses monocultural production functions as a base from which to estimate polycultural production levels. A banana-cassava mixture is modeled to demonstrate how the technique can be applied.